Thousands of euro stolen from Limerick woman who responded to bogus 'HSE' text
ALMOST €5,000 was stolen from a woman living in County Limerick who was targeted by fraudsters.
Details of the incident, which happened earlier this month, have been released by gardai to raise public awareness of the scam.
"On November 9 at approximately 8am, a lady in her late forties from Murroe received a text message from what appeared to be from the HSE. The text advised her that she was a close contact of a person with Covid and that she had to register for a PCR test immediately," explained divisional crime prevention officer Sergeant Ber Leetch.
"This lady was of course concerned so she followed the text directions. The PCR test would have to be paid for and the lady was asked for her bank details. The lady provided the details and thought nothing more of it until later when she discovered that almost €5,000 had been taken from her account," she added.
Gardai say unsolicited texts of this nature are a scam and that those who received them should not respond or reply.
"The HSE will never ask you to pay for a PCR test and will never ask for your bank details. Never provide your bank details unless you are certain who you are providing them to, if you do you might as well open your wallet and allow anybody to pick your money out of it," said Sgt Leetch.